Friday, February 01, 2008

Memories of Eros

An academic has asked me about Eros and Fact magazines--I worked there for Ralph Ginzburg--

Third issue:

I found the quotes for the Marilyn M article--(Ralph told me that JoeD at a restaurant went over to Edw Bennett Williams, the lawyer, with a copy of the magazine and wanted to sue!)Aphrodisiacs--Jim Atwater wrote it altho my name is on it--I did the research--Atwater didn't want his name used--(Atwater, a Time writer, became the dean of a journalism school)Sam Roth--is there a Sam Antrim? I thought Atwater wrote it--Burns ?How do porcupines ?Brothel in art--written by a Life magazine photographer, a woman--Jane Howard was her name! I just remembered-- I edited her article--I complained about the internal rhyme in the first line, but she wouldn't take it out--Poem--written by Shoshana Ginzburg?Ralph hated the etching, and made the page as dark as possible--

Fourth issue:

Love in the Bible -- ?Jewel Box review-- ?Is there a John Erno Russell?John Hejno is Jim AtwaterShepherd Raymond is ME! I thought the lead would please Ralph--justifying its inclusion in the magazine--Limericks-- Dan Greenburg?Ivan Grazni is John Sack--Ralph liked wild names for pseudonyms--

Dan Greenburg wrote How to Be a Jewish Mother--he was brought in as editor--young and inexperienced--and nasty--(psychoanalysis seems to have straightened him out)--he married the writer Nora Ephron! Anyway, DG insisted that if anyone made a change on a page, that person should put his or her initials next to the change--WB, RL--Now, when there was a printer's error, which we didn't have to pay to change, Rosemary and I would insert PE--printer's error--used throughout publishing--

Greenberg walked around the office angrily one day, sputtering, Who the hell is PE?

Rosemary Latimore, who was simply wonderful, would mention that on occasion and quietly laugh and laugh--

I didn't remember that David Bar-Illan, the pianist, wrote articles for Eros--he became a higher-up in the Israeli government--Bar-Illan rewrote the article I had written about Goldwater for Fact magazine, and I was so incensed, I quit--He also wrote, for Fact, a Much-Needed Upbraiding of Long-Hair Music, about homosexuals in the music world--under a pseudonym--(my title)

******* earlier letter:

> Several Time magazine writers freelanced for us> anonymously--John Sack would know--I wrote under> other names, too--I'll check my own copies--a Time> magazine writer wrote the Nan Britton article, which> I researched--(and I got to speak with Nan> Britton!)--he became dean of a journalism school out> west--> > Ralph and I argued over what should go into the> issues--I hated Sexercise, for example--> > And I wanted to run an unexpurgated translation of> Lysistrata that I found at the NY Acad of Med> library--never published!--but Ralph had John Sack> do a new translation--which Dwight Macdonald praised> when he testified in the Eros court case-- > > > Frank Brady, who is chair of the journalism dept at> St Johns, was in the business department of Eros--

> > by the way, I joined after the 2nd issue--having> been working in the PR department of Western> Electric--> > I'm not sure that we had any plans for a fifth> issue--> > >